Making Lemonade With Ben is a compelling Cinderella story tracing sixteen years of Ben’s life. It begins with the night a University of Wisconsin Hospital neurosurgeon saved Ben, and follows Ben through young adulthood. Although he encounters years of substantial obstacles, in 2011 his never-say-die cheery attitude and uber-outgoing ways ultimately carry him to Washington D.C. There he represents the Madison Children’s Museum, his employer, at a national award ceremony. Wearing his ankle-foot-orthosis with a smiley face on the back, Ben juggles one-handed everywhere he goes, accomplishing his life goal: “Make humanity smile.”

Universal themes of perseverance and compassion encourage readers to contemplate contemporary issues: mental illness treatment, recovery and stigma, the role of intentional employers in the lives of those with disabilities, and the success that can occur when a community values all of her citizens.

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Katherine holds UW-Madison Social Work and Sociology degrees, is a reporter for her hometown newspaper, the Middleton Times Tribune, and conducts a class on reminiscence writing. In addition, in her role as administrative staff with WESLI (an ESL school on Madison’s capitol square), she deals in chalk. And paper. Oodles of paper. She recently took an EmptyNester Victory Tour with her husband of 28 years, but hasn’t yet changed the locks on their home. Their three kids can still get in.

Tactics, Trends, & Traits of the Enemy by author Jermaine Gadson is a must have resource for believers who want to be well equipped to be victorious against the strategies of the devil. The devil is cunning and deceptive, and he will stop at nothing to keep God’s people from reaching their potential in Christ. In this book, Pastor Gadson discusses how the enemy uses temptation, seduction, fear, isolation, guilt, shame, and other such things in order to steal and destroy a person’s life. Satan works tirelessly through various means and mechanisms to keep sinners from hearing and being receptive of the Word of God, in order to prevent them from being saved. If you have family or friends who are not born-again, this resource will help you to identify schemes that the enemy may be using to keep your loved ones from being saved. This book is intended to equip the Body of Christ to wage a good warfare against the strategies of the enemy. It is not God’s will for His people to be taken advantage of by the enemy because of ignorance. This book exposes who the enemy is, what he has done, what he is doing, and what he will try to do in the future, as an enemy of God’s people. This book is written for the everyday believer to be able to understand and use. However, it is also a helpful tool for Christian leaders to be able to identify specific ways in which the enemy desires to attack them in order to steal their influence, kill their destiny, and destroy their reputation and ministries. In this regard, it is an encouragement to the Body of Christ to guard and protect their spiritual leaders.

Excerpt:

Know Your Enemy

Before engaging in battle of any kind, it is very important to be familiar with the opposition. The more you know about your enemy, the greater you will be equipped to fight against them and be victorious. Knowing your enemy includes being knowledgeable of their strengths, weaknesses, habits, origin, and the like. When you are knowledgeable about your adversary, you become empowered to develop a plan of action or strategy to adequately defend against their opposition, overcome their threats and defensive mechanisms, and ultimately defeat them.

Athletes and those who follow sports are familiar and acquainted with this principle. Coaches and players spend hours upon hours viewing video recordings of not only their own team, but of their upcoming opponents as well. They view recordings to evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses as revealed by previous games, and they do the same to identify strengths and weaknesses of the next team they have to face.

This principle is certainly pertinent in the area of the military as well. No military general, or top ranking official who has authority over military personnel will in their right mind authorize the use of military force without adequate information concerning the enemy to be attacked. Right decisions require right information. This is especially true if you want to come out victorious and on top.

Now that we can see the importance of this principle from a natural standpoint, it makes sense that this would also apply spiritually in relation to how we are to do battle with our spiritual enemy. As you read this book, I hope that you will be able to see the importance of this material in helping you towards this very end. The reason this book is so important is because the person reading it is like a ballplayer looking at tape of his or her opponent or a military general gathering intelligence on a terrorist organization.

When you know where your enemy came from, what your enemy has done in the past, and what your enemy is presently capable of, you are more readily prepared to wage a good warfare and defeat him in any present or future encounters you may have.

Jermaine Gadson is the Senior Pastor of Faith Ministries, Inc., a non-traditional church located in Birmingham, AL. Prior to starting Faith Ministries, he served as an associateminister, youth minister, and pastor for local churches and ministries in the greater Birmingham area. While, growing up in the Baptist church, he gave his life to Christ at an early age, and is a third generation minister of the Gospel.

He holds a B.A. in Religion with a Concentration in Congregational Studies and a Minor in Classics from Samford University, and a Master of Divinity from Beeson Divinity School of Samford University. He is currently a Doctor of Ministry student at Beeson Divinity School.

Gadson enjoys reading, writing, sports, outdoors, movies, and spending time with his family. He is happily married to his wife Kristy and they have one beautiful daughter, Khloe.

ABOUT A SIXTIES BOOK

SPIDERWORT: noun, Tradescantia. The people’s radiation monitor; fifty times more sensitive than a dosimeter.

Chuckle with nostalgia and outrage as you relive the Sixties. From Woodstock to Three Mile Island, this book is fast becoming a çult classic’. During the construction phase of Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant, an angry Viet Nam veteran and a stoned hippie are paired together in the work force, and a jack Amishman weighs the potential benefits of technology against his love for the land. The fury of hurricane Agnes, charged by an added dose of surrealism, LSD style, becomes a catalyst to expose the bigger-than-life nemesis of the nuclear peril.

This is a horror novel. The monster is frighteningly real. The zero tolerance necessary to achieve nuclear power combined with man’s unlimited capacity for error make for a reading thrill that will captivate all. “Bravo! A Book that should have been written.” — C.R.O.W. Magazine

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Author becomes Prophet with 1993 publication, “Spiderwort”.

“Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.”—from the Bhagavad Gita

In the 1993 cult classic, “Spiderwort” aka “A Sixties Book,” by Damon Galeassi, first published by Rivercross Publishing, the author uses the abstract surrealism of LSD to personify the nuclear nemesis. His main character begins his LSD inspired vision with a quote from the Bhagavad Gita, uttered by scientist Robert Oppenheimer when he witnessed the first nuclear test. Galeassi’s character goes on to describe his vision:

All the voices were quiet, except the one in his head, and it came to him in the form of knowledge:

At first there was only a spasm, a singular drumbeat in the vestibule of oblivion, a brilliant flash of light in the darkness of time eternal; of nothingness endured without awareness for countless millennium… until now.

What was that? Am I? Am I what? Where? Sensors gathered in that instant of beginning a secret I must keep. I know a secret, I know a secret. Why?

Again, another pulse. Heat, so small, but so hot So good to feel. Will feel. Want to feel. When will I feel more?

The man called Hitler has served well to bring about the birthing, but the puny human form has been weakened by defeat and soon it shall destroy itself. I must migrate to my new body soon.

I can sense the latent heat. Although it is a faint pulse, it is but the smallest fraction of what I am to be. I know my name. I am called Manhattan.

The spirit wills the man to die. I must go. I think he knows I am here. He has always suspected. How clever the fool. How did he think he controlled the throngs?

Boom! High in the desert sky, a thunderous reverberation billions of times stronger than those first feeble tremblings.

How fast I grow! Yet, how much farther to go. The desert wilts beneath my searing flame. See? The snakes, lizards, and cacti are but an appetizer.

I can wiggle my toes!

Hunger gnawed at my being like a ravenous carnivore. How long had it been? The vastness of our desert was so empty. It was like one glorious breath of warmth to my frigid lungs. A single breathe, but somehow I lingered. I was alive; in the soil, in the crystallized sand, in the four winds that carried me so abundantly afar. As consciousness expanded, knowledge told me I would reign for tens of thousands of your years. But, not yet. There was so much to do. I realized that if I was patient, I could conquer the universe. I could rule forever. Forever. I have waited so long.

Though the heat feels good, I must remember to drink slowly.

Deep sleep.

Boom! Hiroshima. A single glorious heartbeat that echoed and resounded across the mountains and the sea like the doom fickle man has never known but has secretly longed for. The sweet odor of burned flesh exhilarates me. The trees wither in my path, as forests shall crumble to ashes and oceans shall die when I come forth. I shall consume the land and the wild beasts and the sum of man’s paltry trials. They will become nothing.

Witness: The entire city has disintegrated about me as I spread my seed of poison from east to west like a new sun. This is all so sweet!

Boom! Again, so quickly, the backbeat of a healthy baby’s heart. How wonderful! Am I a boy? How giddy of me. I must rest awhile.

As the fire consumed, and the radioactive dust settled on the land, my consciousness lived on in the stricken and the dying and the dead; in the bodies of the soldiers at Alamogordo, in the survivors, in the food chain, in the wind currents. Everywhere I went I flourished.

Ah, such a tender morsel of un-life. Such a pleasant place to be born; to be dead. It is so ripe. I shall live here for awhile. I shall grow stronger and deposit my seed of blight upon the land. This world will be my Mistress of Barren for a million years.

I know I must be patient.

Don’t tell.

Men will build monuments to me. Mammoth concrete towers where I shall be nurtured. I will promise them unlimited power. When the time is right, when my portals have spread throughout the earth, I shall give them eternal death. The dark one himself will cry of loneliness, will be on his horned knees to me before Cain again kills Abel. When the great gods Zeus and Nike speak of eternity, they speak not my name.

For I am the bearer of the void, the seed of nadir, the plunderer of time unbounded.

And I am free. Die, Dionysius, die!

ABOUT DAMON GALEASSI

After graduation from Penn State University with an engineering degree in 1970, Mr. Galeassi soon found himself working in the Quality Control Department at Three Mile Island. Then along came hurricane Agnes which devastated central Pennsylvania, among other places. The magnitude of possible catastrophe from this conflict of man versus nature turned the author against the idea of nuclear power as a safe energy source. It lead to the writing of this, his first, novel. It seems hurricanes continue to play a role in Mr. Galeassis life, as he later helped rebuild Miami in the aftermath of hurricane Andrew. He currently lives in Virginia with his wife, Nadia. A second novel and a collection of short stories are soon to be released.

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Book Summary:

In The Gifted: How to Live the Life of Your Dreams author, speaker and licensed psychotherapist Daphne Michaels celebrates the nine gifts that are our birthright, guiding readers in how to recognize and use them to transform their lives. In her author’s preface, Michaels reveals how her own journey of life transformation began when she was young and realized that human existence wore two conflicting faces–one of love and joy, and one of fear and despair. She decided then to commit her life to reconciling these two visions because she knew that, irreconcilable though they seemed, together these two faces held the secret to living a life of endless possibility and authentic happiness. Her personal journey and formal education in social science, human services and integral psychology led to the founding of the Daphne Michaels Institute, which has helped hundreds of men and women design the lives of their dreams.

In The Gifted Michaels shows us that the first three “gifts” we must recognize and embrace within us if we are to re-design our lives are Awareness,Potential and Stillness. These three allow us to identify and use the remaining six with a life-changing power: Disharmony, Harmony, Ease, Clarity, Freedom and Engagement. Each of these six relies on the “essential three” for its own power to change our lives, and each has its own gifts–its “children.” By approaching the nine gifts with real-world metaphors, Michaels answers in easily understood ways what for many readers have been lingering questions about personal transformation—such as how it works, what kind of commitment it takes, and why, if we’re committed, real transformation becomes inevitable—and addresses obstacles that readers may have encountered in the past in trying to reach in life a happiness every human deserves.

While the human universe’s face of love is celebrated in The Gifted, so is the face of fear that haunted a young girl decades ago. As Michaels shows us in her book, even Disharmony—the “quagmire” of life born of the human ego’s fear, defenses, delusions and despair—is a gift, too, and one as important as the others if we know how to see it clearly and use it. Once we understand Disharmony, we are ready to understand the real purpose of Harmony in our lives. Disharmony does not need to rule us. It is ours to use as we design the lives of our dreams.

The final gift in The Gifted, Michaels tells us, is the gift of Engagement. Engagement—with the universe and with ourselves—allows us to use all of the other gifts with more power and joy than we ever imagined possible.

That mountaintop decision never left me. It drove my life’s work and over the years led me to understand that there are gifts – nine of them, in fact – that we are all born with but rarely experience in their full glory and potential. These gifts – which make each and every one of us “The Gifted” of this book’s title – are the keys to living lives of endless possibilities and, in turn, achieving an authentic happiness that cannot be lost. They are, in other words, the keys to achieving the life of our dreams.

– Daphne Michaels

Excerpt:

Life’s greatest mystery is inside us. It is inside every living thing. Like the deep secrets of the universe, the mystery inside us will never be fully explained. By exploring it, however, we can discover gifts available to us that can change our lives forever.

Life’s great mystery is awareness. More basic than thoughts and more primal than instincts, awareness does not require a centralized brain, as scientists have proven through studies with invertebrates like starfish. While these beautiful creatures have no centralized brains, they possess awareness. Starfish, like all invertebrates, use awareness to perceive, eat, grow, reproduce, and survive.

Awareness is so intrinsic to life that it defines life: living means being aware. From the beginning of life – before we take an initial breath – humans demonstrate tremendous awareness. Prenatal psychologists have discovered that we experience, while still in our mother’s womb, not only light and sound but, even more astonishingly, emotion. We kick our legs when agitated by loud noises and sway pleasantly to beautiful classical music. Months before birth we grimace at the taste of sour amniotic fluid and drink heartily when it is sweet. Awareness grows as we grow.

As we develop as human beings, our awareness stretches in all directions – from awareness of our five basic senses to awareness of external events around us, from awareness of our emotions to awareness of our thoughts, from limited awareness of a topic that bores us to an expanded awareness of topics we feel passionate about. Of all the many dimensions of awareness, the highest form is self-awareness. With self-awareness we begin to appreciate just how far awareness actually extends. Just as ocean waters are deeper than the surface of the sea, awareness is deeper than the surface of our physical body or our conscious thoughts. The infinite depth and breadth of awareness is filled with gifts that are ours to receive.

About the Author:

Daphne Michaels is an author, speaker and licensed psychotherapist whose institute has helped hundreds of women and men transform their lives through the “gifts” every human being is born with. Daphne began her own journey of transformation at a young age, pursued it fearlessly, and later studied formally in the fields of social science, human services and integral psychology. The Gifted: How to Live the Life of Your Dreams launches both Daphne Michaels Books and The Gifted series, whose goal it is to share with the widest audience possible the principles that guide the Daphne Michaels Institute. Daphne’s earlier book, Light of Our Times, featured her conversations with such international figures in the fields of spirituality and personal development as Ram Dass, Julia Cameron, Dr. Masaru Emoto, and Thomas Moore.

ABOUT GHOST SANCTUARY

Ghost Sanctuary is a factual accounting of a family’s struggle with ghosts living in their home. The book explains in detail the happenings faced by the family and their reaction to the invasion of the spirit realm into their own. The book contains fascinating photo and video evidence of what the family has and continues to experience. The author identifies how her own belief in God and the afterlife has helped her to overcome and understand the trials and tribulations of her family’s ordeal.

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ABOUT BECKY J

Becky J. is an equestrian lover and spends her days in Western activities, teaching, riding, training, and breeding horses. For more information about her unusual nonfiction tale, please visit www.GhostSanctuary.com.

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ABOUT DEAR FRIEND

Title: Dear Friend

Genre: Non-fiction humanities

Author: Cheri DeGroot

Publisher: iUniverse

Pages: 60

Language: English

ISBN – 978-1-44016-146-9

Are you looking for a way to meet new people from all over the world, make new friends, and help others? The solution is simple and affordable—become a pen pal. In Dear Friend, author Cheri DeGroot shares the joys and rewards of becoming a pen pal and provides tips on sharing friendships through handwritten letters.

Based on fifty-three years of personal experience as a pen pal, DeGroot details how her lifelong passion for pen palling began and how her friendships with people from all over the United States have helped her through life’s good and bad times. This guide demonstrates the positive aspects of pen palling—from sharing news of family, hobbies and emotions to expanding their knowledge by learning about different cultures and different people.

Stressing the importance of communication, Dear Friend reveals how becoming a pen pal can help those who are lonely to find friendship, love, and happiness through the power of the written word.

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ABOUT CHERI DEGROOT

Cheri DeGroot loves writing letters and journals of her life. Pen palling helps her make new friendships by reaching out through written letters and by computer. DeGroot has initiated several pen pal clubs. She has three grown children and seven grandchildren and lives in Milverton, Ontario, with her husband, Joe.

Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840), one of the greatest violinists who ever lived and rumored to have made a pact with the devil, has somehow transferred unique powers to another…

When violinists around the world mysteriously vanish, 16-year-old Emma Braun takes notice. But when her beloved violin teacher disappears… Emma takes charge. With Sherlock Holmes fanatic, not to mention gorgeous Corey Fletcher, Emma discovers a parallel world ruled by an ex-violinist turned evil sorceress who wants to rule the music world on her own terms.

But why are only men violinists captured and not women? What is the connection between Emma’s family, the sorceress, and the infamous Niccolò Paganini?

Emma must unravel the mystery in order to save her teacher from the fatal destiny that awaits him. And undo the curse that torments her family—before evil wins and she becomes the next luthier’s apprentice…

The Luthier’s Apprentice

Chapter One

Brussels, Belgium

Present day

Sixteen-year old Emma Braun got off the school bus and strode down Stockel Square toward her home. She glanced up at the October sky and wrapped her wool scarf tighter around her neck. Heavy dark clouds threatened a downpour.

As she passed a newspaper stand, the headlines on The Brussels Gazette caught her attention:

ANOTHER VIOLINIST VANISHES!

Emma stopped. For a moment she could only stare. She dug into her jacket pocket for coins and bought a copy.

The newspaper article left her stunned. Not only because three well-known violinists had gone missing in the last several months, but because the latest one was her teacher, Monsieur Dupriez.

The news story seemed so hard to believe, she stopped at the next street corner to read it one more time.

It was the last week of October, and the shops and homes were lightly adorned with Halloween decorations. Pumpkins and Jack-o-lanterns sat on doorsteps. Witches, broomsticks, and black cats hunkered down in windows and shops. Just last evening, Emma had sauntered along this street with her best friend Annika, unconcerned and looking forward to Halloween. Now, everything had turned dark and ominous.

The strange incidents she had experienced for the past two weeks added to her stress.

At first she had thought they were a string of coincidences, but not anymore. While scowling at obnoxious Billie Lynam during school recess, for instance, she wished he would fall flat on his face… and half a minute later, her wish was granted. On various occasions she guessed people’s thoughts before they spoke. And yesterday, on her way home from school, she accurately guessed the meal her mom had left on the table for her.

Was she some kind of a psychic? If so, why now? People didn’t develop powers like these overnight. Did they?

She hadn’t told her mom about her new abilities yet; only Annika knew. Maybe she would tell her mom today, after she shared the news about Monsieur Dupriez.

As Emma approached her home, she quickened her step. By the time she reached the door she was almost running. She raced into the hallway and dropped her book bag on the floor.

“Mom!” she called, looking in the kitchen, then in the living room. The house was silent. “Mom!” she called again, racing up the stairs to the bedrooms. Entering her mother’s room, Emma found her sitting very still on the bed with a crumpled letter in her hand.

When her mom saw her, she hastily put the crumpled piece of paper into her pocket and rose from the bed. Her arched brows were furrowed with anxiety.

Emma momentarily forgot the newspaper article. “Are you okay, Mom?”

“I’ve just received some unsettling news,” her mom said. “I must make a trip to see your Aunt Lili. She’s ill. She…I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.”

Aunt Lili? Emma frowned. More surprises. Emma had never met her mom’s eccentric only sister, who lived alone in the Hungarian mountains secluded in an old chateau surrounded by dark woods—or so her mom said. Though again, her mom hardly ever mentioned her.

“What’s wrong with Aunt Lili?” Emma asked. “Can’t I come with you?” She had always been intrigued by her mysterious aunt.

“No. You’ll stay with Grandpa. You enjoy working with him, don’t you?” Her brown eyes met Emma’s before turning away, and though her voice sounded matter-of-fact, Emma detected a trace of ambivalence.

Emma sighed. She loved violin making with a passion, but Grandpa was a bitter taskmaster. No matter how much she tried to please him, she never could. Maybe that’s why her mom often seemed so reluctant about her apprenticeship.

“I’d rather go with you,” Emma said. “Plus, next week is holiday.” All Saints holiday week—or Toussaint, as they called it here—almost always coincided with Halloween.

“That’s out of the question. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. Besides, you can’t miss your violin lessons, not with the Christmas competition at the academy coming up soon.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Emma said gravely, extending the newspaper.

Her mom took it. “What’s this?”

“This is why I came running up the stairs.”

Her mom read the headlines. She gasped and looked at Emma. When she finished reading, she sat on the edge of the mattress and stared into space. “Oh, my God…” she whispered.

Emma sat next to her mom. “It says Monsieur Dupriez disappeared in his study. The doors and windows were locked from the inside. The police don’t have any explanation. How can this happen? It’s not logical. It’s not humanly possible.”

“No, not humanly possible…”

“Just like the other three—that German violinist, the French one, the American. Nobody has explained their disappearances. Who would want to kidnap violinists?” When her mom didn’t answer, she began to gnaw at her fingernail.

As if by reflex, her mom pulled Emma’s hand away from her mouth.

“Sorry,” Emma mumbled. “I’m just worried about him.”

“Poor Madame Dupriez. We must visit her. She must be in quite a state.”

“Can you call her now?”

Her mom sighed. “I will. In a moment.” She looked at Emma, her features softening. Gently, she smoothed Emma’s glossy chestnut locks and side fringe away from her face. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine. You mustn’t be afraid.”

“Afraid? Why would I be afraid?”

“I mean, about Monsieur Dupriez.” Her mom appeared flustered.

“I’m not afraid. I’m worried, and angry. I want to find out what happened to him. Without him, I don’t even want to take part in the competition.”

Monsieur Dupriez had been Emma’s teacher since she was four years old. But more than teacher, he was her mentor.

“You will do your best at the competition—with or without Monsieur Dupriez. Do you hear me?” her mom said. Then her voice softened. “Listen, darling, I know how close you are to Monsieur Dupriez, but you cannot allow his disappearance to destroy your chances at the competition. I’m not asking you to win, only to do your best. You have great talent, a gift, and your duty is to use it to the best of your ability. Never forget this. Monsieur Dupriez would never want you to forget this.”

“You still haven’t told me what’s wrong with Aunt Lili,” Emma said, changing the conversation. “Why must you go to her now, after all these years?”

Looking into Emma’s face, her mom hesitated, as if unable to decide what—or how much—to say. “You know she’s always been ill, a recluse. She…” She rose from the bed and walked to the window, then opened the curtain. It had started raining, the drops pelted against the glass. “This time it’s serious. She may die.”

Emma couldn’t help feeling a twinge of suspicion. She hated distrusting her mom, whom she loved more than anything in the world, but this time her mom was lying. Emma trusted that feeling, another of her freaky new abilities. She felt an overwhelming urge to chew her fingernails, but tried to control herself. For her mom, a violinist’s hands were a work of art.

“But what’s wrong with her? What kind of disease does she have?” Emma insisted.

“Her heart is very weak.” Her mom turned away from the window to face Emma. Her voice was laced with impatience.

And again Emma thought: She’s lying.

“Please don’t worry about it,” her mom went on in a lighter tone. “I’ll try to come back soon.”

“How soon?”

“As soon as I can manage.”

“Grandpa is always in such a nasty mood,” Emma complained.

“Well, that isn’t news, is it?” Her mom stared down at the floor, as if absorbed by her own thoughts. After a pause, she added, “He’s old and his back always hurts. You know that.”

“I love Grandpa, but he’s so freaking…” She tried to come up with the right word. Bizarre. Instead she said, “Mysterious. You know, with his violins.”

Her mom looked at Emma and frowned, as if waiting for her to say more.

“You know what I mean, Mom. With that room at the top of the stairs. The one that’s always locked.”

Her mom’s features hardened. “He keeps his most valuable pieces in there. You must never disobey him. He would be very disappointed.”

“Who said I would go in there?” Emma asked, trying to sound innocent. If there was something she intended to do, it was going inside that room. Once she’d almost been successful. For some crazy reason, Grandpa had forgotten to lock it one day. But the instant she touched the doorknob, he had called her from the bottom of the stairs, his wrinkled features twisted into a mask that had left her frozen. He had appeared enraged and afraid at the same time.

“When are you leaving?” Emma asked, shaking off the past to focus on the present issue.

Fine. Obviously, this wasn’t the best time to bring up her new psychic powers. She headed to the door.

“Where are you going?” her mom asked.

“To my room.”

“I’ll call Madame Dupriez to see if we may visit her after dinner. In the meantime, I want you to pack. You’re moving to Grandpa’s tomorrow.”

In her room, Emma dragged her suitcase from the top shelf in the closet and set it on the floor.

“Hi, Sweetie,” she said to Blackie, her rabbit. “Want to get some exercise?” She opened the cage door so Blackie could hop out and roam about her room. Blackie was housebroken, and smart as a cat—or close to it.

She stared at the elegant taffeta gown hanging from her wardrobe door, a strapless design a la Anne Sophie Mutter she’d already bought for the upcoming violin competition.

She sighed.

Slumped on the bed, Emma wondered for the umpteenth time about Monsieur Dupriez’s strange disappearance.

ABOUT AND FACE THE UNKNOWN

As Levy clings to a tree high above a river and tries to catch his breath, he doesn’t know what to do next. He has been a slave for Mr. Willoughby since he was little boy, and now things are changing. Unsure of what year it is, Levy escapes the jaws of slavery on the cotton plantation. He is a runaway slave without a plan.

As soon as he sees a boat floating in the river, Levy knows what he must do. With Mr. Willoughby on his tail, Levy boards the boat and hides behind the big wheel. As he somehow eludes capture, he begins a journey with a colored captain at the helm who works for none other than Levy’s former owner. As the captain takes Levy under his wing and they travel down the river, Levy finally learns what it’s like to be a free man with choices and the ability to make decisions for himself. But danger lurks around every curve, and Levy soon finds that his journey to independence will not come without challenges.

In the second installment of this historical tale, a Lincoln-freed Colored risks everything in order to realize the sweet taste of liberty and justice for all.

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CD would love to recommend the following books:

playing in the dark: whiteness and the literary imagination Toni Morrison

Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 James Oakes

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF DIXIE: The Civil War and The Social Revolution That Transformed the South Bruce Levine

The Empire Of Necessary: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World Greg Grandin

ABOUT CD HARPER

CD Harper is a retired professor and arts administrator who holds degrees from the University of Illinois and St. Louis University. His first novel, Covenant, began the story that now continues in And Face the Unknown, the second installment of an intended trilogy. He and his wife reside in Gleneden Beach, Oregon.

ABOUT THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JESSIE HUNTER

Jessie Hunter is spoiled and always has been. He is in college when his father unexpectedly dies, and he must return home to sort out the family funds. Jessie expects to become lord of the manor, taking over his father’s business and land and becoming the high-powered man his father always wanted him to be. But nothing is as it appears to be.

Jessie soon comes to suspect that his father was murdered and that whoever killed his father now wants Jessie dead as well. He can’t be sure why, but he knows he’s being hunted and must go on the run. Jessie must place his trust in an estranged uncle he never knew in order to stay alive.

Now in hiding, Jessie leans on others to find safety and answers. But how will this spoiled, sheltered young man be able to solve the mystery of his father’s death? In order to get his life back, Jessie must be strong or end up dead at the hands of his father’s assassin.

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Could you please tell us a little about your book?

The story is about a young man named Jessie who is going home because of the death of his father. Jessie and his dad haven’t been that close the last few years of his father’s life and now he had to go home to find out the truth about his father’s death. He meets his uncle that he really never knew, only to find out that there was more to him than just the casual glance would reveal. Jessie finds himself having to fake his own death and go into hiding. But what he learns during that time is what is going to help make him the man his father always wanted to be.

Who or what is the inspiration behind this book?

Really no one is the inspiration behind the book as far as it being a real person. It was just a thought that came to me one day and I just kept running it through my mind until I came up with a story line that I liked.

What cause are you most passionate about and why?

That’s easy. My family is what I am the most passionate about. I have been blessed to have a loving wife for over forty years. We are blessed to have two wonderful kids and two very wonderful grandkids. I came from a broken home, so please believe me when I say that I am very passionate about family. They are my life and what keeps me grounded.

Do you have any rituals you follow when you finish a piece of work?

Yes, First I read over it, and then I put it down for a few weeks, take time to allow my mind to rest, and then I reread it again. Also, I take my wife out to the café’ for a latte.

Who has influenced you throughout your writing career?

The main person would have to be my wife. She has always believed in me and stood behind me. She has always been my strength and my love. Love is the most powerful inspiration you will ever find.

What are some of your long term goals?

First to see this book really be successful, and then to write the next book in this series.

ABOUT RICHARD WILLIAMS

Richard Williams is also the author of the Guardians series. He and his wife, Janice, have two children and two grandchildren. They currently live in Mississippi with their two shelties.

ABOUT SHOPPING FOR A LIGHTER CROSS

Everyone has life’s challenges and can face them with fear or with trust. I choose to look at them as experiences where God blessed me with His curve balls thrown in. These curve balls are not the negative, painful or abusive life experiences that I have lived through, but rather the unexpected, blessings, gifts, and graces God threw in to help me through the experiences. I believe that these curve balls were given so that I can witness to His great and awesome presence in and through the experiences, the people in those experiences and in myself as living through and surviving the experiences as a better, not bitter human being.

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ABOUT DR. C

The author lives in Aston, Pennsylvania with her husband John, their golden retriever Clover and their two cats: Duchess and Graygray. Dr. C is a Pastoral Associate/Spiritual Director for a Catholic parish in Delaware County and John works for the Federal Government. Dr. C graduated with her Doctorate in Ministry degree in May 2013.